AUTHOR'S NOTE: Before I begin this chapter there's something I want to let my readers know:
High class warriors like a few masters and the divine warriors are the only ones able to activate two arms on each fore arm. Desmond and his group are tyros—novice— and can only activate one arm guard. And the color of one's arm guard determines his strength. Tyros use bronze arm guards.
You'll figure the rest out along the way.
Now, on to the chapter:
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Lawrence and Royal stood at opposite ends of the open clearing in the forest.
Between them prowled several dar-tandemons, blades and claws glinting.
"Damnit!" Royal growled, teeth clenched. "I never expected this. Dar-tandemons... here?"
He glanced across the clearing at Lawrence, who looked just as tense.
"Hey! You're Lawrence right?"
Lawrence stiffened, turning his attention to Royal.
"Y–Yeah." His gaze snapped back to the demons. "And you're... Royal, right?"
"Ha! You actually remembered my name!" Royal joked with a grin.
"I could say the same about you." Lawrence shot back.
Royal chuckled again, activating his arm guard. "Well, I should have been your opponent but looks like things took a different route."
"Yeah!" Lawrence answered, his smirk growing wider as his own arm guard flared to life.
"I guess we have no other choice but to fight back back."
A mini purple jet—the size of a bag pack—materialized, attached to Lawrence's back[Jet] and two black daggers appeared in his hands.
"Let me tell you guys something!" Lawrence said, his voice calm but deadly, purple aura escaping his body.
"Don't you dare take us lightly."
Fire erupted from the jet's thrusters, launching him straight toward the demons. "We're not weak kids, do you understand?" He added as some of the the demons lashed out at him.
He twisted around in mid-air with both daggers outstretched, parrying an attack from the first demon with one dagger, the other one immediately coming around to slice the demon's upper body cleanly off.
"Wow!" Royal gasped, watching Lawrence's move. "He's damn good." He grinned, a katana appearing in his right hand.
One dar-tandemon sensing Royal making a move decided to move first.
Seeing the first demon approach, he stepped forward. The air around his arm thickened into frost vapour.
The demon swung its blade down at him. He blocked, cold vapour leaked out, surrounding them in an instant [freezing Point].
Ice surged, freezing the demon in place.
A heartbeat later, Royal emerged out the mist— the demon shattered into several fragments behind him.
"I'm not so bad myself." Royal cracked, heading for the others.
---
Augustine and Kocho crouched behind a boulder, arrows clanged at the stone from the other side.
"Dar-tandemons?! How did–" Kocho cut himself off, clicking his tongue.
"They must have concealed their energy. That's why we didn't sense them. Not even the masters." Augustine answered, clearly unhappy about the whole situation.
"Damnit!" Kocho cursed. "They're good at hiding their presence."
"I doubt." Augustine interrupted. "They must have had a stronger demon among them who could do that."
"Seriously?!" Kocho groaned.
"How am I supposed to attack like this if I can't see or sense them? None of my earlier attacks seemed to have got any of them."
Augustine turned to him.
"Let me handle that part!" He offered, going down and pressing both palms against the ground, closing his eyes.
[Terra Dominion: Spatial Awareness]
The place suddenly went blank in his vision— vibrations bloomed through the earth. Every little tap. Every shift. He could feel it all.
One of the demons made a huge mistake dragging its left foot a short distance over the ground. The vibration seemed to ripple through the floor, all the way to where Augustine perched.
"Located them." Augustine's eyes snapped open.
"Get ready to attack."
"Huh?!" Kocho turned to him, a bit surprised but nodded.
"Got it." He went down picking five small pebbles— two in his left hand and three in his right.
Augustine got up and smacked both palms against the boulder. Five huge holes carved in the boulder and spikes shit from the other side in the demons direction.
The demons stopped their assault and jump to dodge the attacks but ended up vulnerable.
"Now!" Augustine turned to Kocho.
Kocho just grinned brightly. "Finally!" He jumped up, ready throw the pebbles which crackled with flames in excitement.
He located the demons who were still in mid-air, completely not braced for his move.
Then—
Whoosh
He hurled the pebbles who streaked through the air like fire balls toward the demons.
Boom
Five of them vanished in a violent explosion and the shockwave blasted the rest backwards.
Augustine used their frustration to exit his hiding place to the side of the boulder— their blind spot.
Then he stamped his foot on the ground with a loud thud, sending multiple earth spikes at them.
The ones the attacks came at couldn't do anything but watch as the spikes tore through them.
_ _
Rexford flipped through the air and landed lightly on the river surface. He immediately activated his arm guard and a katana appeared in his hand.
Three dar-tandemons snuck up behind him but he was quick, a little too quick to notice them.
He turned around, using his katana to draw a straight line on the water and jumped back.
Immediately the demons crossed that line, that part of the water surged up like a rising curtain, splitting them into two halves each.
The demons at the other side froze, waiting for the curtain to lower and pounce on Rexford.
Instead, the guy emerged from the cascading water—a water whip slithering around him.
He moved like a dancer, gliding from one demon to the other. The whip as sharp as a blade, cut through everything it touched, flesh and armor alike.
Rexford growled in excitement. "And here I was being scared for nothing. You guys can't even take care of a weakling like me?"
His eyes glinted mockingly as he jumped up, the whip flowing spirally around him. "Pathetic."
He moved his katana, commanding the whip to slice down everything beneath in a single, devastating sweep.
_ _
Emmanuel—with his arm guard on and a katana in his right hand— slashed downward on a dar-tandemon's chest and turned around, parrying a blade from another one and quickly dashed past, decapitating it in the process.
As he moved, a third demon—right up ahead of him— brought its axe down at him.
He stopped for a moment, bringing his sword up to block it but before their blades could clash, Emmanuel sidestepped, letting the demon's blade striking hard against the ground.
He then moved past it and behind it. One clean slice—from its torso, up to its head—the demons split apart.
He heard footsteps and turned around, glancing at a group of six demons standing on a high ground with arrows aimed at him.
"Let's try this." He exhaled softly, his arm guard and sword lighting on fire.
He took a stance, clutching his sword to the left.
"Hiding behind arrows instead of facing me? What a bunch of cowards."
The demons frowned, clearly not pleased with his words. "You little brat." A demon snapped as they rained their arrows at him.
He just grinned. "Time for you to be judged like the evil you are."
Then he swiped his flaming sword through the air, creating an arc of a compressed flames which shot forward, slicing through the arrows and the demons within a blink.
The demons gasped. "What... was that?!" One of the demons struggled staring down at the deep cut through its torso. Flames erupted from the cuts and spread through the demons bodies, burning them to crisp.
_ _
Augustus landed on a tree bark—arm guard activated— as wind spiralled around both fore arms and legs. He scanned the dar-tandemons rushing towards him.
He lashed out at them using the wind around his legs to propel himself through the air. As he got closer, the wind spiraling around his forearms sharpened into a pointed end at his finger tips.
The leading demon balled its right hand into a fist to meet Augustus with a blow but Augustus just tilted to its left, digging his wind drill hand into the demons core.
He followed up with a swift wind movement through the incoming ones, punching holes in them like they were just some unneeded things.
To the far left, Desmond—arm guard activated and katana in right hand—pointed the tip of his blade at a group of dar-tandemons, concentrating the lightning flashes around his body into the sword.
The lightning surged from the blade, hurling at the demons and zapping the strength out of them, leaving them paralyzed.
He quickly turned around lightning crackling around him as he deflected a demons blade strike and cut it upward and deeply on its chest.
Then he turned toward the paralyzed demon—lightning coursing around him—and moved swiftly through them, decapitating them one by one.